I find that I like keeping this camera-lens combo close by when driving to be able to pull over and hop out for ephemeral light or wildlife, and it’s convenient to have around my neck when walking around spectacular landscapes.
I’ll be particularly liking the “entire rig in a fanny pack” option in March. We have two different itineraries in Death Valley, as the daytime heat creeps up into the 80s and 90s. As temperatures approach the 90-100 degree range, afternoon and sunset shoots can be a sweaty mess with a full backpack on, especially on the salt flats and sand dunes, where additional sunlight is reflecting up onto you, and even more heat is radiating onto you from the salt or sand as well. A light shade shirt and no backpack greatly improves comfort and reduces the risk of heat exhaustion.
With my Nikon D850 I often had one lens on the camera, plus a second lens to change to, typically covering a focal length range of 14-70mm. This setup was carried in a large hip pack to keep weight off my back (since getting a fractured vertebra in early 2023). To carry my 70-200mm lens and 2X teleconverter to reach 400mm was not very practical when away from the car without my full camera pack. I needed a large jacket pocket to carry the 2X teleconverter, and the widest I could go with that combo was 70mm. Now I have 28-400mm in the first lens, and I can carry my 14-24mm f/2.8 lens or the lighter, smaller, Z 17-28mm f/2.8 lens, covering 14-400mm or 17-400mm with no pack on my back. I can add a small hydration pack or day pack for additional water, food, clothing and gear for longer day hikes or lights for night photography, as I often do in Bodie.
